Fulling Singles

I finally finished spinning my SAL from Loop, color is Kaleidoscope Eyes with sparkles. This was the photo inspiration for the colors:

And this was the resulting batt (photo courtesy of Loop):

It seemed like it took forever to spin this batt. It was a different preparation than I have ever tried. I am not sure how she makes these, but the end result is a center pull batt that needs no pre-drafting. It was very pleasurable to spin. When I wound it off the bobbin I had over 1,000 yards of single ply.

I decided to try to “full” the single ply skein rather than trying to find something to ply it with, and my Navajo plying is not very good at the moment. To do that you first take the singles off the kniddy-knoddy—a scary thought as you will see below:

See what a mess this is with the plys trying desperately to wrap themselves back on each other. Then, fulling is essentially felting the individual ply on itself, being careful not to felt the entire skein into one big blob. This is accomplished by fist immersing the skein into a pot of VERY hot water

Then a pot of ice water, and repeating this with agitation until it has just fulled but not felted into a big blob. Then lots of thwacking.

I almost had a big blob.

I was a bit distressed, mostly at the time that I would have lost, and instead of photographing the process, then spent my time trying to make sure that the fibers did not permanently felt to one another by stretching it out, pulling the fibers away from one another, and ultimately letting it dry stretched out on my swift.

Then, through lots of pre-recorded shows on the DVR, winding it into a ball and unweaving any messes that I created. Then I wound it onto my skein winder and was good to go.

Pre-fulling I had over 1,000 yards. I am not sure how much the felting process took away from my yardage. Plying may be more in my future than fulling, as this was a stressful process. I recommend trying it on a much smaller scale the first time!